Jean learns origami and conquers the crane, sort of, and The Ruse is playing in Asia with Muse

Hi everyone!
I decided to celebrate my kid's band, The Ruse,  playing over in Asia. He is there right now!

Cool poster, si? If you love The Ruse, they have a new album out, too. It is wonderful!  It is called "Interstellar Stowaway", and is available on iTunes: http://tinyurl.com/stellaruse



As all this put me in an Asian state of mind, I decided to dazzle you with some origami.
Here is a cool link from PBS concerning the history of origami.

I also wish to credit this fantastic website: Paper Kawaii, for my inspiration. I came upon it and was blown away with delight. I would like to thank Paper Kawaii also for the lovely free downloadable origami paper, designed by Paper Crystal. It can be found right on the Paper Kawaii site! The designs are great.

Now I would like to confess here that the only thing I have ever made using the art of origami is a paper cup, when I was 6 years old. Oh yeah, and I also made that "navy battleship" hat out of newspaper which everyone and his brother makes. It is kind of like the paper cup only pointy on top, and you wear it.
Hands up if you are wearing yours now as you are reading this! Extra points if you are drinking out of your origami paper cup, too!

However, today I had a dream. After all I have eight billion free printers, thanks to my reviewing for Amazon, so I was set to print out the paper I found on Paper Kawaii. Paper Kawaii is in not in any way affiliated with me, PS. I am sure, after seeing my origami, that Paper Kawaii (which I thoroughly recommend)  is glad about that! Anyway here goes:

I got 12 print offs, each different (very pretty! here is a shot of some of them), plus a single print off I used for my first try, when I deludedly thought that, as everyone else seems to be able to make beautiful origami squirrels, elephants, cockatoos, and even houses to live in,

 it was going to be easy. (pic credit: www.news.com.au )

It would have BEEN easy if I had tried one of the beginner patterns suggested, however I was  eager to try the very famous, much photographed and greatly beloved crane.
Remember that guy in that detective movie who left little cranes all over the place as a sign he had been there? Very cool. What movie was that? It is eluding me, possibly because it is around thirty years old at least...was it Bladerunner?
How annoying, it was Bladerunner, but it wasn't a crane. It was a CHICKEN. Oh well,  I always wanted to make a chicken, next.


 How about the gum ad with the father and the daughter and ALL THE GUM they chewed together through the years, with the dad always making cranes for the daughter from  all those gum wrappers?
And she saves the little cranes for years and years until she goes to college?  Improbable but so cute.

It doesn't hurt that the dad looks like Liam Neeson. It is the little things, isn't it?
--good grief, they actually say those exact words at the end of the commercial.

Anyway,  I love the crane and wanted to learn it.

So, I tried.
Here is my first attempt:

do you notice anything wrong with this?
By the way, this is not the fault of my online teachers, who are excellent

I have titled this "Flappy Heads Home by jean baldridge yates". Flappy is the name of the crane and he is heading home, and I made him, so that is the origin of the title,

I don't give up easily. I made some more tea and chose another piece of paper.
I followed the directions as carefully as I did the first time

I titled this,"Flappy is saying to Zippy, 'Follow me!' by jean baldridge yates "  and yes, isn't it awkward when you have to use a second set of quotation marks with a first set of quotation marks? Note how I did it, however. I am usually right on grammar stuff.
So. To sum up: what you are looking at is two of the same thing. I did the same thing the second time that I did the first time. They are just arranged a different way on the board to look different. Zippy actually sucks as much as Flappy.

The problem was that I could not seem to grasp how to get these cranes' heads to be positioned between their wings.


This problem was frustrating, admittedly but for a "pro artist and designer" like me, nothing I couldn't handle, emotionally. On a scale of one to ten, it was like a 4 or so. Maybe a 5.

What to do but to try again,
and

Voila! The olive flowered crane (whose name actually is "Voila"), although a bit bent out of shape, is in fact correctly folded (for the most part--her actual head is kind of grade B).

I call these pics " 'The Birds', fig one, and 'Straighten Up and Fly Right, Flappy, Zippy and Voila!', by jean baldridge yates".
I know Alfred Hitchcock already used the title "The Birds", but what the heck, no one remembers that movie anyway.

Thanks for reading! Time to fold some more cranes! I have lot and lots of paper left!

--jean

Note: I truly do whole heartedly recommend the website I cited above, Paper Kawaii . It is fantastic if you love origami! Tons and tons of great projects and a lovely, cheery vibe!

and if you haven't heard The Ruse yet, you have got to hear them. They are amazing!

The Ruse in Thailand with Muse